I like 'James' but didn't get the sense of amazement that I'd heard from others and hoped for.

NW was brilliant. Loved every minute of it.

Melting Point was a truly fascinating history, told entirely through sources and with no authorial voice. Quite brilliant, especially in the opening sections.

Hi Beth. Thanks for the kind mention. The follow up chat about the limitations of NPQH is very familiar. It came up in our Rethinking Headship survey repeatedly last year.

Which was why I developed the Head Cases offer, now recruiting for a second cohort.

www.ssatuk.co.uk/cpd/leadersh...

And, of course, so good to connect with you here. I've been a bit social media reluctant in recent months but you're a reminder of why it can be the best place. Hoping that you're very well.

I very much hope that you do too. So far, the blend of experience and inexperience has been beneficial. That's in line with the evidence where it has been trialled for school leaders and from other domains.

In short, it would be great to have you involved.

Thank you, Caroline. It has been fascinating seeing this through (so far) with cohort 1.

So much resonance with each case, meaning colleagues are each bringing insights, some of which are very different. And yet, each session has concluded with some commonality that holds the experiences together.

Conclusions are aimed at policymakers but are worth school leader attention too, particularly improving feelings of belonging.

This came up with PISA and TIMSS responses too.

Our work on attendance might be able to help schools wrestling with absence.

www.ssatuk.co.uk/cpd/school-i...

Most striking is the assertion, based on decompositional analysis, that the absence of PP students in Y11 accounts for the entire increase in the gap in their outcomes.

For students in Y6, the picture is more complex but absence still accounts for almost half of the increase in the gap.

Hi Beth. Thanks for the kind mention. The follow up chat about the limitations of NPQH is very familiar. It came up in our Rethinking Headship survey repeatedly last year.

Which was why I developed the Head Cases offer, now recruiting for a second cohort.

www.ssatuk.co.uk/cpd/leadersh...

For schools improving their odds of success - more children at expected for RWM or at 5+ English and Maths, getting more students into 95-100% attendance band is key.

This is because the proportion of students in these top two bands is so large.

For students, any upward improvement is important.

At KS2, reaching a higher next attendance band increases the chance of success (expected RWM) by 30% and that's fairly consistent.

At KS4, gains across all bands are smaller, but moving from 90-95% to 95-100% attendance bands almost doubles a student's odds of success (grade 5 English and Maths).